Twelve Candles

Emma's birthday began with a trip to Cafe 641 for breakfast (a banana Nutella crepe for her) where she received her first birthday gift. 

(And it was right about now that I realized that Emma was wearing the wrong jacket! )

Sleeping Queens (from Grace). The girls played a round while waiting for breakfast to arrive). 

Emma poses with the newest addition to the birthday ring! 

A perfect way to commemorate all the letters that she and her great-grandpa have written this year (plus he turns 100 in April)! 

Next gift. Something she really needed....

new goggles! \

They are pretty fabulous!

Emma loves Dolly Parton. It's her dream to go to Dollywood one day! 

And her final birthday gift: 

Hedwig! 

Traditional pre-birthday ring picture. 

Lighting the final candle. 

Officially twelve. 

After her story was read and the candles were lit the three of us took turns bestowing wishes upon her for the coming year. 

Twelve cupcakes on her twelfth birthday! 

A sweet message from one of her most favorite people in the whole wide world! 

Last night, as Emma was heading up to bed she gave me a kiss and said "thank you for making my birthday so special! I had a wonderful day!"  It was a quiet day full of all that Emma loves best (her family, yummy food, some much wished for gifts, cards/messages/texts and phone calls from friends and family). Thank you so much to everyone who helped to make Emma's birthday so very special! David and I truly cannot believe that our baby girl is twelve! One more year and we'll have TWO teenagers in the house! EEK! 

An excerpt from Emma's birthday ring story:

Twelve candles for our sweet girl. Twelve candles for twelve years of joy that she has brought our family. Twelve candles for her sweetness, her helpfulness, her kindness, her generosity, her humor, her intelligence, and her happiness! Happy birthday, Emma Faith! May this next trip around the sun be as full of magic and wonder and joy and laughter as you are! We love you to the moon and stars and back and we can't wait to see what this next year holds! xo